The Announcement
by UberNerd121
Summary: Eve Two hasn't been feeling well since she became an Energy Vampire. A trip to the Axiom Robotics Laboratory reveals something that she and Nos never saw coming.


I've been sitting here for hours. In this quiet waiting room of the Axiom Robotics Laboratory, my thoughts are the loudest thing. I brought Eve in this morning after she started complaining about a pain in her containment chamber, and we found that she couldn't open herself. Worried it might have been a virus, I asked Computer to scan her, but the results were inconclusive.

"There is a foreign energy," he had told us, "but it's not a virus. You should have a complete diagnostic preformed to be safe."

I rushed her to the ARL without calling ahead for Dr. Darickson, but he was kind enough to have an assistant start the detailed scans until he was available. It took half an hour for the report to be put together, and Dr. Darickson showed up right on time to review it with us. Well, he reviewed it... then asked me to go to the waiting room. I've been sitting here, worried out of my mind, ever since. Dr. Darickson said that there was no virus, but he thought he might know what was going on. Was it a malfunction? Had she damaged herself somehow? A nagging thought in the back of mind keeps saying this is all my fault.

No matter what the scans say, i_I/i _am the one who turned her those few months ago. The recovery process has been long and painful, and is still going on to this day. What if something has gone horribly wrong along the way? I'm programmed with a lot of information about turning another robot, but at the same time... a robot has never willingly been turned to such a degree before. In fact, there has never been a willing robot before Eve at all. Any of a billion tiny variations could have completely altered the outcome of her dramatic physical change, but when you get down to the little details, I am ultimately at fault.

I feel positively sick.

Dr. Darickson startles me when he walks into the room, as if I never expected the examination to be over. I suppose a small part of me never wanted to know the cause of Eve's recent ailments. I rise to meet my mate's engineer.

"Is it serious?"

He doesn't answer me right away and I try to make sense of his expression. He's definitely nervous, but also confident, letting me know that he certainly found out what's wrong with my fledgling.

"Well... serious isn't exactly the word I would use," he replies cautiously. I stare for a moment before gesturing for him to continue.

"She was nervous about me telling you this, but..."

"What is it? Is Eve alright?!"

"Two is pregnant."

I temporarily lose touch with my sensory systems as the ground fluctuates beneath my thrusters. My hand reaches back to the chair I'd been sitting in as I try to steady myself.

"Eve..." I struggle to form a coherent sentence, "She can't. I-It's impossible!"

Of all the things I imagined, of all the horrible things I may have caused her, she's pregnant?

"Two said the same thing. It looks like she was never properly educated on the subject of her artificial reproductive system. It's true that you aren't equipped with compatible hardware, but it looks like turning her changed more than we could have expected. You are now ‒ and I use this term loosely ‒ the same 'species.' Her system recognizes your data as a match, and because neither of you were in the practice of using protection..." the man's voice trails off. He knows that I understand what he's implying, but it's still impossible.

"The nanobots! There's no way I could have provided any nanobots ‒ " but as soon as I say it, horror strikes me to the core. I couldn't have put her reproductive system into action, but what if there's another man? The thought sends my head spinning and I grip the chair even tighter to keep from keeling over.

"Mr. Nos-4-a2, you don't need to be concerned with such things!" the doctor cuts into my thoughts, "You don't know much about the system either, do you? Nanobots from a male unit aren't necessary; they just speed up the baby's development. Conception can occur simply with data transfer. I understand that this is a big shock for you, and I'm going to my office to find a couple of documents that will clear everything up. You should go to Two in room 3B. I'll be with you as soon as I can."

I think I nod. The world around me feels hazy as I hover from the waiting room to a corridor. I drift past a line of doors until find myself staring at the placard on one that says "3B."

What am I going to do? I don't know anything about babies, especially not with this Earthling robotic system! I'll be no help to Eve... I'm such an idiot. She's probably mad at me, but I don't know what else I should expect. What kind of child wants to grow up beneath the shadow of a monster like me?

Honestly, the child is beside the point right now. Eve is the one who deserves my concern. No matter what, I have to go in there and make this alright.

I press the pad on the wall and the door slides open, revealing a room that looks nicer than it feels. Bright posters hang in organized patterns on the white walls, bathed in light that streams in freely through an open window. Eve is facing towards the view of the hospital garden with her back to the door, resting against the examination table, but the negative energy flowing from her core is nearly tangible. Wave upon wave of tangled emotional turmoil crashes uncomfortably over my sensors, but I do my best to block it out.

"...Eve?" I begin quietly as I hover to her side. She doesn't even blink; her distant eyeforms gazing blankly out into space. Even now, she's strikingly gorgeous, although in the saddest sense of the word. I tentatively extend my hand and put it on her shoulder.

"...I'm sorry," her voice is just above a whisper, but the words couldn't have made more of an impact if she had screamed them. "I should have seen this coming. I wanted to wait a few decades maybe, but now it's actually happening. I c-can't abort... it's just too awful. I can't kill anything that hasn't even had the chance to live yet."

Her voice starts to waver in a way that brings tears to my optics. "No, of course not, it's okay. I'm so sorry that this is happening, my love. I never meant to cause you this much pain."

She turns her head to look at me. Guilt, anxiety, fear and an odd form of love are all apparent in her eyeforms.

"Y-You're not mad at me?" she sniffles.

"No, never, this isn't your fault. It's not like you could've helped it," I murmur.

We're both silent for a moment as it starts to sink in. Eve moves slowly into my side, resting her head against my chest. Her metal, sleek and warm, almost feels fragile as my arms ease around her slender frame.

"Nos, I'm scared... Dr. Darickson said that I'm going to start feeling sick and that it's going to hurt. I'm so tired... I thought I was finally getting better, but... now I have to do this..."

My partner's weary tone is just too much for me to bear. Oil builds up over my optic and I bundle her up as much as I can in my arms.

"I know, I wish I could take this all away. If you need anything ‒ anything at all ‒ you tell me. I promise that no force in the galaxy will be able to stop me from helping you however I can," I whisper. Her arms wrap around my waist and she nuzzles her visor even closer against my chest.

"Thank you, Nos-4-a2," she replies just as softly. "...But, still... we're... we're going to have a i_baby/i_. It's going to be i_our/i_ baby, Nos... We'll be parents."

I give a quivering laugh and smile. No matter what comes next, I'm confident that we can take it. With Eve being as brave as she is, and the advanced sciences of the ARL, all that's left to do is prepare.


End file.
